{"id":326,"date":"2026-10-04T17:50:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T17:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/?p=326"},"modified":"2026-10-04T18:54:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T18:54:43","slug":"fall-writing-frenzy-2026-entry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/2026\/10\/04\/fall-writing-frenzy-2026-entry\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall Writing Frenzy 2026 Entry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I love all of the annual writing competitions in the Kidlit community. They&#8217;re an excellent opportunity to challenge your writing and explore new ideas for stories. This year&#8217;s Fall Writing Frenzy, hosted by Lydia Lukidis, asks writers to pen a 200-word (or less) entry inspired by one of several photos. I saw this skeleton in shock and thought about what could be coming through those shrubs to cause such a fright! The result is below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1024x683.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-1536x1024.png 1536w, https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/image-2048x1365.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-annotation is-style-text-annotation--1 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Photo #8<\/strong><br><strong>Credit:<\/strong> Unsplash via Sabina Music Rich<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-contrast-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1 wp-block-paragraph\">Thanks for reading!<strong> Visit <a href=\"https:\/\/lydialukidis.wordpress.com\/2026\/10\/01\/fall-writing-frenzy-entry-form-2026\/#comment-13023\">Lydia&#8217;s site<\/a> to view all of the entries!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-text-display is-style-text-display--2 wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>A Visitor in the Garden<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Rebecca W. Chester &#8211; <em>200 words<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I gasped as I heard the rustle of leaves\u2013<em>the ghost!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Goosebumps prickled my skin, and I felt a chill far colder than the October night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">I froze as a hand appeared, groping through the hedge. An arm followed, then a head, and eventually, an entire body.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">A boy about my age stood right in front of me, shaking leaves and twigs from his clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve seen you before,\u201d I said, \u201coutside my window. You disappeared into the roses. Are you a ghost?\u201d I asked, though it seemed clear to me now that he wasn\u2019t.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The newcomer laughed. \u201cI\u2019m Andrew.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhere did you come from?\u201d I demanded, feeling much bolder in the presence of a mere human boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Andrew tilted his head toward the wall of foliage as he pulled a small, black rock from the pocket of worn denim overalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYes, I saw that.\u201d I indicated the brick wall running the length of the garden. \u201cBut <em>how<\/em>?\u201d There was no way around or over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Andrew expertly rolled the smooth rock across his knuckles as he cautiously surveyed me.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe question is not <em>where<\/em> I came from, Ada, but <em>when<\/em>. I\u2019ve been waiting a very long time to meet you.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I love all of the annual writing competitions in the Kidlit community. They&#8217;re an excellent opportunity to challenge your writing and explore new ideas for stories. This year&#8217;s Fall Writing Frenzy, hosted by Lydia Lukidis, asks writers to pen a 200-word (or less) entry inspired by one of several photos. I saw this skeleton in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rebeccawchester.com\/wp2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}